Month: May 2011

Community first, technology second. Often the military will focus on creating technology solutions when stakeholders aren’t onboard or are non-existent. Technologist must be controlled and not allowed to build and/or deploy software until a community and user base is identified.

We hurt our fellow citizens and our community when we deny gay people civil marriage and its protections and responsibilities. Rather than divide and discriminate, let us come together and create one nation. We are all one people. We all live in the American house. We are all the American family. Let us recognize that the gay people living in our house share the same hopes, troubles, and dreams. It’s time we treated them as equals, as family.

Join me and I’ll buy YOU A DRINK. As a member of the host committee, let us share this important political fight.

New Yorkers need more reach into THEIR local government and one more excuse to gather for drinks with their neighbors. This Thursday, May 19th, we can have both! I’m co-hosting a casual bar night with New Kings Democrats (@newkingsdems) to launch its #VoteLocal campaign,which will register 2,500 new Democratic voters in Brooklyn before the next election and educate people on why voting local matters. Please join me and I’ll buy you a drink!

I support @NewKingsDems because they promote progressive causes and candidates to root out the three Cs – complacency, corruption, and encroaching conservatism – at the local level of our party.

But that means forking over some heavy cash, right? No! Our politics are egalitarian, and so are our giving levels. Donate securely in advance or at the door. And let us know on Facebook that you’re coming!

But the city seems more focused on apps than on community. I understand the economic development appeal of fostering startups. But the open data movement long predated apps. I highlighted this in my post last year (see the “Misplaced Priorities” section).

The pain and agony of his death must have paled in comparison to the daily struggle he endured, looking for a job only to be denied hundreds of times. Nobody wanted to hire a person whose work experience consists of arranging toxic assets which, combined with other financial disasters, ultimately took down the U.S. economy. I’ll never have closure or understand why he couldn’t reach out to one of us. We had no idea our close friend was suffering and hurting to the point where death seemed like the only escape. So many Miami alumni were at his funeral, looking at each other saying the same thing: I would have done anything for him. Didn’t he know that?

In the world of the so-called millennial generation, said Neil Howe, a writer and historian who is often credited with defining that term for the generation, “Evil is evil, good is good. There are no antiheroes, there is no gray area. This is a Harry Potter vignette, and Voldemort is dead.”